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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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But this AM we talked it over and that is a lot of miles to commit to something that you don't know what you are getting into. We've never seen the trucks out of NC for this company. By the time the office in MN opened today our option to get to NC was gone and so were the trucks in NC. Timing is everything. When I called in the trips we wanted were gone ... but dispatch said they had others. "Sorry, we have to make sure the pay before we commit." We headed out without a trip to head to. By the time we got to Burnsville we had decided to take two to CA. The storm we had been watching would wind down Sunday night so we will stop just short of there and wait it out. We took our half hour break at Hardee's and then picked up our RV's. As expected, they added a lot more good trips going to the SE, but there was guarantee they would. I'm really low on fuel at pick up so I stop in Forest City and BB goes to Clear Lake. I catch up to her there and we run together. Quick stops at the rest area's in Ankeny and Underwood and then we are in Omaha before dark. Quality Inn on the west side of town is our place to stop, it has a really good Mexican restaurant, Azteca. Had to pass a few wide loads today, also saw a mobile home that had lost all it's tires on the one side. Other than that, not much for excitement. We got a good deal on a rental car for a week coming home so we'll see if we use it for work, play or just come home. 171104 - IA to CA - Day 2 Left the hotel again before daylight, I needed fuel so I stopped before we got on the freeway. When I first fill the RV it says I should be able to drive over 600 miles on this tank full. But I am actually only getting a little over 300 per fill. First stop is a fuel stop for BB in York at a Shell, then a stop at a rest area in Kearny, then a food stop in North Platte. Because one of us has a gas and the other has a diesel and because they aren't getting the same mileage, we are filling at different stations. Fuel prices are all over, at this AM stop fuel was $.40 less a gallon than the two exits down. That will add up over a 2,000 mile trip. Lunch was the Denny's / Flying J in North Platte, we hadn't really talked about it only that there was food there. Penny's diner is at the next exit and is the #2 place in North Platte ... maybe next time. No White Chocolate malts at Denny's, they were all out. Before we leave town I have to stop for fuel again, Sinclair has it cheapest at the next exit. An hour down the road we are stopping to fuel BB's RV at the Flying J in Big Springs. Somewhere after that BB is flashing her lights at me ... she doesn't know where her paperwork is and we have a scale coming up. Turns out it had just slid from where it was when she stopped quickly sometime today. Then shortly another unscheduled stop ... all these rough roads have done a number on BB's bladder and she passes me and takes the next exit. Ten miles down the road we are stopping again at the POE. I can't find my oversized exception so BB gets ahead of me in line ... guess she is more organized. Twenty miles more and we are at the motel ... the Quality Inn in Cheyenne. We could eat at the Denny's across the street but that was lunch. I notice that fuel at a Sinclear close by is $.20 less a gallon that the Flying J and Loves ... so far. So I decide not to chance it going up overnight and go fuel after we've checked into the motel. Supper is at Wendy's. No one in line today. Last time we were here there was a long line because the manager would only let the cashier have two unfilled orders ... so everyone had to wait until one order was filled before he could take the next order. Not sure how long that manger lasted. No big planning chats today. Tomorrow is our longest day, 550 plus miles with 10 hours daylight, plus fuel and food stops. And no stops across the last 100 miles of UT ... the salt flats. 171105 - IA to CA - Day 3 4 AM? Due to daylight saving time ending and being in a different time zone ... and trying to get an extra 60 miles today. We were down at breakfast before it was all set out, and then BB fueled this AM, I fueled last night. It was raining and about 34 degrees when we left this AM and hoping the storms were beyond us. Only a few miles down the road we hit ice, hard pack snow. That first stretch between Cheyenne and Laramie that we didn't want to do last night was the worst. By the time we hit it it was getting light so we could see what we were in for. Highway signs are 'variable' and set at 45 (instead of 80.) We past a couple of trucks going 10-20 miles an hour and a few past us early going closer to 80 but most of the traffic was holding it pretty good through the worst of it. We may have had 2-3 hours of it, not sure how many miles it was. Roads were plowed and sanded but no salt and no sun, early fog but we drove out of that by daylight. Sand was throwing up a lot of rocks but haven't found any damage ... yet. Other than those spots and a little wind the driving was good. We stopped first at a rest area near Elk Mountain, that first leg took an extra half hour. Next stop was at a Loves in Wamsutter for a break. They don't have a big car lot so we parked with the big rigs ... as I get out of my RV, some guy sticks his head out of the van parked in the next slot and complains that we are taking up big rig spots and should be parking with the 4-wheelers ... he slams his before I can respond. (We do park with the cars if there is room, but this one takes up four spots ... 24 foot long) As we leave, BB is in front of me an goes with the incoming traffic only to find out there is only one entrance / exit. So U-turn in oncoming traffic. Next stop is lunch and fuel at Rock Springs Shell, at Cruel Jacks. It used to have a resturant and may soon have an A&W, but right now you have to order at the fuel desk and a cook in the back will make up the food. We just picked stuff off the shelf. Gas was cheaper in Evanston so BB only put in enough gas to get there, that is our afternoon stop. Love the range on this RV. When I first fill it, the range shows over 600 miles. And it will vary up and down 150 miles as we drive. When we entered UT, it was 196 miles to Wendover and I had a range of 196. 60 miles later when we were in Salt Lake City, I had a range of 240 left. I didn't trust it so I put in two gallon to make sure I got that last 130 miles. Glad I did, I was down to less than three gallons when I filled at the next stop (90+ miles with no services across the salt flats) Must be dry, lots of tracks out into the salt flats, did see one pickup that someone was trying to pull out of the salt. Tonight we are at the Quality Inn in Wendover, UT ... we don't have permits to enter NV until tomorrow AM. We walked over to the casino for a buffet. Not cheap and food was OK, but not worth the price. Friday nights it is $29 a person, no thanks. I'm guessing the taco truck in the corner is less expensive. 171106 - IA to CA - Day 4 Late leaving this AM ... so a short day with sunset before 5 pm. First call at 6 am local was to dispatch on the east coast about a run on the west coast. Turns out everything out of that location is used, so I passed for then and it was gone shortly after that. Next call was for permits right at 7:30, I had to leave my number my contact was busy. I call back at 8:30, she is still busy. Finally just before 9:30 she calls ... as she talks she lets slip that some people have her direct number. Seems like I might have been one of the first people to call in but about 10th that she got to. Almost another hour before we get our permits emailed to us. I stopped just a couple of miles before we shut down for the night but BB is ready to stop for fuel in Wells just an hour down the road at the Flying J. Then we get two hours in before I need fuel again, I'm not down to empty but fuel is far between out here. Because of how late we got going, we are ready to eat by the time we get here. First we stop at Flying J for a Blimpies, but it's gone. So we have to drive into town to Port O Subs.Medium is too much food. Then we stop for fuel at a Shell. We are finally using up our $$$ from motel rewards points. Another hour down the road we stop at the Flying J in Winnemucca. This is, or should be, the last fuel stop for BB. While we are stopped I notice my RV smells like something is burning. Neither of us can find anything so we hit the highway. But I pack up my bag and put my phone in my pocket ... just in case. One more hour down the road we stop for my last fuel stop in Lovelock. We have found it easier to figure out our range and top off the tank, rather than adding a few gallons to a partial tank. Somewhere near Rye Patch, there is a middle aged gal walking along the highway. It didn't look like she was dressed for a walk and about two miles down the road was a car. Long walk but lucky there was anything that close. The fuel station is still open but they took down their Chevron sign a few months ago. Another place along the highway I noticed a semi on the frontage road. He may still be there ... The road he was on had narrowed between the freeway and the mountain and then went under the freeway, with a one lane culvert. The only way he could get that thing through one of those is if he was 100% straight before going in and there was not enough room. So he would be backing that trailer a mile or two down the road to a place he could turn around. Coming into Reno was fun ... right at rush hour with the sun right on the horizon. Instead of being a couple of blocks from delivery we are a couple of hours. So we've had to change rental car, etc. We ended up at the Best Western in Verdi, Mels Diner was the meal. No hard plans for tomorrow yet. I will likely call company #1 before we head home ... and keep watching the other board for work but everything has gotten slow since the first. 171107 - IA to CA - Day 5 Today started the same as yesterday ended, with a meal at Mel's Diner. The motel doesn't have a free breakfast so we ate at Mel's before we hit the road. When you add that $20 to the price of the motel it isn't so cheap anymore. Once we checked out we were greeted with frost. More frost that the edge of a credit card would easily scrape off, but we scraped off what we could and waited for the defrost to do the rest. Beautiful morning drive, we were out at sunup ... once we got into California and into higher elevations, there was fresh snow and frost on the trees ... and looking down on the fog in the valleys with the sun lighting up some of the mountain tops. Mileage. I started this AM with a fuel range of 300, I drove up and down the pass 60 miles and stopped with a range of 375. I should have coasted in on fumes but instead I left over a half a tank of fuel. Dealer said I win a prize for leaving the most fuel in a unit. Not sure what happened. I had averaged 13 mpg over the first 1,500 miles then yesterday it drops to 12 mpg. Today it showed it was at 17 but based on fuel used it was closer to 26 mpg. This is the first RV in two years that I have not spent less on fuel than they gave me. And I left it all in the tank. BB did make a little, enough to offset my loses. She looked back later and we have made up to $140 each on fuel on some trips. The cheap one way rental car was about 30 miles from our drop so we picked up a local rental to use to pick up our oneway. It seems like an extra step but it makes it easier to get delivered and gives us wiggle room if plans change. First we park one RV in a vacant lot, then go and pickup the local rental car. Drive near delivery and drop the first RV, then back and pick up the 2nd RV ... then park the local rental and take both RV's to the wash and delivery. While getting inspected, I walk back to where the rental is parked in move it to the dealer. Once we are delivered we use the local to pick up the one way, then return the local to where we picked it up ... all before we can leave town. Work doesn't exist on the board, so I call company one and they don't have work either. So straight home it is ... unless something comes up on route. We have the car for a week and we can get home in two and a half days. Not sure how we will work this. If we return the car to early to cost more than doubles. After we picked up the car we saw that there is now a truck from Salt Lake to NH. And a bus run from AL to OR, but that one is kind of out of route. As soon as we were done at the drop we went to In-and-Out. Once we were out of town the first stop was the Petro in Reno as a rest stop. Then Fernly at Arbey's to get food to eat on the go. Tonight is the Quality Inn in Winnemucca, that makes it an 15 hour day so far. 171108 - IA to CA - Day 6 Another made to order breakfast, but this time it didn't cost $20, it was free with our room. We only had three choices but one was eggs and meat and juice. Five slices of thick bacon ... plus what BB didn't eat of hers. No frost on the windows this AM, on the road at sun up so driving into the sun for a while. First stop is Wells at the Flying J (again,) it was time for a break and this was the cheapest we would see fuel for a while. When we were getting off the freeway we noticed a trucker stop in the street and get out of his truck right in the travel lane. Then he got out his measuring sticks to make sure he would clear the underpass ... it wasn't marked. BB's turn to drive ... from here to Lake Point and lunch. We decide on the soup and salad at the Country Pride. Her driving gave me time to type up some of those things I think about for hours as I am driving. Like Electronic Logs and quitting the third driving company. From lake point it's up hill to Evanston for our next fuel stop. I wanted to stop at the Flying J but there is not an easy way to get in and out coming from the west so we went to Pilot. Next to the Flying J is a restaurant named JB's that we've eaten at. I looked online today it gets really, really bad reviews and I wanted to see if it was still open ... maybe next time. Missed the rest area BB wanted to stop at so it was the Love's in Wamsutter for a quick break and then on to Larami for food and motel. We could have pushed on but we have been trying to stay pretty close to driving daylight hours and now it gets dark at 5 pm. Food was Penny's Diner and sleep as the Comfort Inn. Nothing good showed up on the board anywhere close to us today so we'll be heading home. We would have had to really push it to get to our safety meeting on Friday so instead the goal is to just get home by dark Friday night. Be off Saturday and drop the car and head out again on Sunday. Depending on how that works we may be out all the way up to Thanksgiving or home that whole week 171109 - IA to CA - Day 7 No made to order breakfast this morning, back to the stuff off the warmers. Eggs, bacon plus yogurt for me and toast for BB. First stop is the Flying J in Cheyenne for fuel, same place as we stopped on the way west. From here BB took a turn at driving until a rest area near Sidney. I retyped some of what I did typed yesterday. I forgot to save it and then deleted it. Oh well, kept me busy. We thought we were stopping for lunch at a Mexican place called Mi Ranchito. Sign said they were open 11am to 8 pm but we were there after 11 and all was locked up. We didn't want fast food, or County Pride ... so we were going to drive until we found something. Ended up being just across the street at a place called Margaritas. Good food. I had drive to Ogallala from Sidney, but from here BB took over again. It's nice not to have to drive all the time but I can only spend so much time on the computer in a car without being on the internet. Did see one semi driver parked out in someones field with two cops looking in his truck. Cops cars were on the freeway so I'm guessing the truckdriver had left the road and gone through the fence. It was a van type trailer, not a grain truck that maybe should have been in the field. I had been looking down and didn't see the truck until we were past it. Lots of RV's and travel trailers moving today, also lots of new package vans, USPS, UPS and FedEx. BB drove to the Cozad rest area and then I took over again. We stopped at Elm Creek for fuel at Pilot. Fuel was cheaper down the road, but we didn't have enough to get there and not enough difference to stop twice. Another couple of hours and we were in Omaha. We had looked online and there were cheaper motels in town, but the reviews were not good so we are back at the same motel we were at Friday night. Quality Inn. And we ate at the same place as Friday, Azeteca. Mexican food twice in one day ... but I guess Mexicans likely do that most of the time :) Not much in the name of excitement on the road today, looks pretty much like it did a few days ago. Lots of work came and left the board today. Mostly the large RV's that BB doesn't want to drive. So we may end up going back to CA on Sunday. That will give us one day at home to recoup. IF we take that run we should be back on the following Monday or Tuesday. 171110 - IA to CA - Day 8 Up and rolling early, not much eventful on the last leg of this trip. Drove two hours then stopped at Pilot in Des Moines for fuel. Drove another two hours and stopped for lunch at Wendy's in Clear Lake. Another half hour and we were in Forest City picking up our car. From there we stopped about every half hour to look at the board for work and got home about 4 pm. We had talked about taking two RV's out to San Francisco, but that was last night. By this AM we weren't so sure and one of them disappeared about a half hour before we were going to call. Other runs came and went, but nothing that we really wanted. We had planned on leaving Sunday AM, but now it is Friday night and we don't have worked lined up. Sometimes they put new work on the board on Saturday, but not often. We now may not leave until Monday or ... You snooze, you loose. |
